Win/Fail of the Week – God Hates Signs

The fail is for me. Let me explain: Once upon a time I was a fundamentalist Christian. As I have said before, my spirituality has evolved somewhat (the fact that I would even use a word like “evolved” illustrates that fact). I still love Jesus and think He was the coolest, and I have often referred to myself as a “Christian But.” Case in point, I’m a Christian but I don’t hate gays and want them and their fabulous shoes to burn in hell for all of eternity.

Here’s the fail part: I have a lot of Facebook friends and family members who are still in the fundie camp. To them homosexuality is an abomination. Good thing, however, is that the gay can be cured. They think. And if God doesn’t cure it then it’s just going to have to be your thorn in the side, you’ll have to act like you’re straight and normal and keep those impure nasty gay thoughts to yourself.

OK, so on my personal Facebook page I have an album called “Picture of the Day.” Much like here with my Graphs and Fails of the Week, the “of the Day” part is a big fat lie. I post one whenever I find one that is funny, inspiring, or just plain silly. I thought that the above pic was funny, so I posted it.

I should have known better. As quick as you can say “Siegfried and Roy,” the pic had a comment from one of my FBFFs that said something along the lines of “Well, while some of what they say might be correct, we can’t evangelize the world with that attitude.”

Hwat??? I immediately started kicking myself for putting the damn picture on Facebook, knowing that such people exist in my “friends” list. Now this message was on my page, there for all my other friends to see. Some of whom happen to be gay, some of whom happen to be family and gay. What part of what Westboro Baptist Church says is correct? Fags? Hates? God?

OK, Joe. Calm down. Just respond in a reasonable thoughtful manner. So I responded with “No matter what your theology says about homosexuality, I hope we can agree that God doesn’t HATE anybody.” *Sigh* Fine, that oughta do it. Right?

Wrong. Faster than you can say “Last word,” he came back with “No, he just hates the sin.”

Son of a motherless kumquat!!! I went away and thought about it for a while. Then about a day later another country was heard from. Well, not really. Pretty much the same country. This time it was one of my cousins. Now this lady is as sweet as the day is long, but again, firmly in the fundamentalist camp. She wrote something about how we Christians need to be salt and light to the world…hate the sin but not the sinner…bla bla bla.

I deleted the picture.

Look, here’s the thing: Maybe homosexuality is a sin. I don’t know. I don’t have to know because of two things:

1. I’m not gay.

2. I’m not God.

Frankly, I’m quite glad about both of those things. Even if it is a sin (and I’m not sure it is), who decided that it was the Queen Mother of sins?

I’m pretty sure about some other things that are sins, though. Hate. Pride. Blasphemy. Using the name of the Lord in vain is a sin. Look at that list and then look at the picture again. If God hates anything it’s gotta be people who put their self-loathing and (probably) conflict with their own lusts up on a fucking sign AND THEN PUT GOD’S NAME ON IT.

But, like I said, the biggest failure in this whole thing is mine. Failure of judgement, I should have known that putting a picture like this on Facebook would be like hanging red meat out for a pit bull. Why was I surprised when people jumped on it and put their two cents in?

And the thing I’m most ashamed of is that I didn’t really stand up for my gay brothers and sisters. I was a first class coward. I just took the picture down and ran away. I should have said, “You know what? Fuck you and the horse you rode in on (probably also a sin, and very annoying for the horse). God doesn’t hate fags!!!”

Forgive me, God and my fervent readers. The best I can say is that I’m a work in progress.

4 thoughts on “Win/Fail of the Week – God Hates Signs”

I liked your post. Obviously the people who made those signs were ignorant. It’s rather sad really! As for your friends/relatives; In their desperate clamoring attempt to prove a point – did they even read your statement? Is ego more important than a relationship and the respect within such a relationship? All to often, people are willing to comment without first considering basic love and respect for others. They would rather be right. Being right has nothing to do with justice, love or mercy. Nothing at all. Keep standing up for what you believe is right my friend :)

Awww, I don’t think you did anything wrong; you should be free to post what you like on your FB page, and logically, thanks to evolution ( ^_~ ) you’ve learned to spot a useless argument at 100 paces.

Some people can’t handle having their realities shattered because it’s all they’ve been taught, so they’ll defend it at all cost. When and if they’re ever ready; we can only be there with a dust pan… hmmm… just found a line for a new poem lol! See?! they contribute! ^_~